With a population of more than 1.2 billion, India is the world’s largest democracy. Over the past decade, the country’s integration into the global economy has been accompanied by economic growth. India has now emerged as a global player.
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A visitor to Gandhinagar, capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, is likely to notice the glint of the sun reflecting off solar panels on the city’s rooftops. Some sit atop schools, other on hospitals.... Show More + Many are perched on residential buildings. Altogether, the panels generate about 5 MW of electricity, providing better access to power for an estimated 10,000 people.The groundbreaking project, a pilot public-private partnership (PPP), attracted approximately $12 million in private financing. Besides adding power generation capacity, it reduces climate emissions by more than seven million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually and complements the 270 MW Gujarat Solar Park, Asia’s largest, in helping the state reach its goal of producing 500 MW annually from renewable sources. But the greatest success of Gujarat’s solar rooftop program, playfully referred to as “rent-a-roof project,” lies in its replicability. Launched in 2010 with the help of the IFC, which served as trans Show Less -

Bank Group ContributionSince 2008, the Bank Group has provided $48.6 billion for energy projects, with $24 billion from IBRD, and $11.4 billion from IDA. Of the total Bank Group financing, $12.4 billion—25.6... Show More + percent—was for renewable energy projects and programs, reflecting the determination of many countries to seek lower-carbon energy solutions. Energy efficiency, and transmission and distribution accounted for nearly one-third of energy financing. About 16 percent of the portfolio since 2008 is devoted to fossil fuel projects. PartnersThe Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative, co-chaired by UN-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, is a global coalition of governments, private sector, civil society and international organizations that aims to achieve three goals by 2030: 1) Universal access to electricity and modern cooking solutions, 2) Double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, reducing the compound annual growth rate of Show Less -

Inadequate finance, lack of shared infrastructure and constraints to supply chain key barriers to scaling upNew Delhi, 12 December, 2013 – Launched in 2010, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission... Show More + Phase 1 (JNNSM) is well-poised to make India a global leader in the development of solar power. In a span of three years, India has taken a significant step forward in implementing its green growth agenda by increasing its installed capacity of solar power from around 30 MW to more than 2,000 MW, says a new World Bank report.What is significant is that JNNSM has been instrumental in bringing down the cost of solar power to a level that is competitive across the world, says the report. It has reduced the costs of solar energy to $0.15 per kWh, making India amongst the lowest cost destinations for grid-connected solar Photovoltaic (PV) in the world.The report, Paving the Way for a Transformational Future: Lessons from JNNSM Phase 1 (pdf), says solar power can reduce India’s dependence Show Less -

In the short span of three years, India has made impressive strides in developing its abundant solar power potential. It has added capacity at a commendable pace, and successfully reduced the costs of... Show More + solar energy to around $0.12 per kWh for solar photo voltaic (PV) and $0.21 per kWh for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), making India amongst the lowest cost destinations for grid-connected solar power in the world.Growth in the energy sector is key for India as more than 300 million of the country’s people still lack access to electricity, and industry cites energy shortages as a critical barrier to growth. The development of solar power will help India produce clean energy and contribute to reducing emissions per unit of GDP by 20-25% by 2020, over 2005 levels.Development of solar power in IndiaIndia’s concerted efforts to develop solar power began in January 2010, when the country launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) as one of the eight missions under the country Show Less -

The two-day workshop, hosted by Mustapha Bakkoury, CEO of MASEN, and also a member of SE4ALL’s Advisory Board, addressed these questions:What is the right policy and regulatory framework for utility-scale... Show More + solar power?How to balance domestic manufacturing with deployment of different solar technologies? What are the challenges and opportunities?How to integrate solar power into power systems?What are the optimal pre-requisites for development of large scale solar projects?How to structure appropriate financing and risk management instruments under various development schemes?“Concentrated solar technology is suitable to address our energy security and climate change challenges,” Mustapha Bakkoury said in his opening remarks. “However, CSP needs support to become competitive until the development of large scale CSP projects in an innovative and effective operational mode can provide the necessary economies of scale to bring cost down.”“Making renewable energy viable is essential to achie Show Less -

To achieve these goals, India needs to build domestic capacity to supply its own CSP components rather than import most of them, as is now the case. In addition to its energy benefits, such local manufacturing... Show More + would also boost India’s economic growth.India has already brought down the cost of solar power substantially through the first phase bidding under the JNNSM, which was conducted under a reverse auction model. The World Bank report estimates that with local manufacturing of components, the cost of CSP components in India could fall by 15-30 percent from present levels. It argues that with the right support, this local supply chain could be up and running in 4-7 years. The study was carried out by the World Bank’s South Asia Sustainable Development Department and financed by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)."Project implementation until now has been held back by a lack of experience with the technology," said Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary of the Mi Show Less -